Introduction
I have been praying into the role of the Chinese Church (both in mainland China and the Diaspora) for some time, and believe that today the Lord has been giving me some keys. Since Jesus is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36), he is able to integrate for us a perspective uniting past, present and future, this is what I am sensing now. I am certainly not claiming these insights are exhaustive, but I put them forward for testing and prayer. The very end of this communication has practical implications.
(In the future I believe I will have insights in relation to other racial groups.)
The Globalisation of the Church
In terms of the history of Christianity, we have witnessed two waves of globalisation and are soon to enter a third. The first wave was the spread of European missions, this requires no comment. The second, which is tapering off in terms of human presence but remains immensely influential through media, is the Americanisation of Christian spirituality (prosperity gospel, Willow Creek, Saddleback etc.). The third wave will be the global impact of Chinese Christianity. I believe the Holy Spirit is making advance preparation for this, and it is the role of the prophetic ministry to speak of things that are coming (Mark 1:3; Rev 4:1).
Each successive wave of global gospel advance possesses its own strengths and weaknesses. It is universally recognized, for example, that it was only after the removal of Western missionaries that the indigenous Chinese Church exploded. Local forms of leadership had been held back by church patterns of spiritual colonisation (however unwittingly). With the third wave that is coming God is seeking to break the repeated cycle of cultural dominance into the church via a major political-economic.
In a personal conversation with James Hudson Taylor 4th in Hong Kong, he remarked to me, “We may be seeing in China a miracle like what God did with the conversion of the Roman Empire.” I believe he is correct, but besides the obvious work of grace there is a potential downside to all this.
When some time in the next century a Christian China becomes the world’s greatest superpower what will prevent the Chinese church lapsing into the errors of the fourth century. The Spanish philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” After the conversion of the Roman Empire the Empire invaded the church – relieved from persecution, bishops become politically powerful and wealthy, masses of nominal believers shifted from temple to church, clericalism developed, worldliness increased, miracles dropped away etc. The church became “Romanised” and an official chaplain to the state whose prophetic voice was silenced. At a deep level, most of the church in Europe (with a spill over into North America) remains under this power. Jesus does not want this pattern of civil religion repeated in the future.
The Church in Perth Serves God’s Global Purposes by Befriending Chinese People
Riots in the living experience of Australia’s neighbours in Indonesia, Malaysia, The Solomon Islands and Tonga have one thing in common, anti-Chinese sentiment. None of the majority people groups I can think of welcome Chinese for themselves. If you asked the man/woman on the Perth street to do a word association with “China”, the immediate response would be something like “market”, “economy”, “resources”, “boom”. The dominant global mind – set to do with Chinese presence is associated with business and financial power. Perth however is a place where this can be broken. It is part of the eternal sovereign plan of God (Eph 1:11) that we are both on the same time zone as China and endowed with remarkable mineral wealth to fuel that nation’s economic advance for a particular reason.
The challenge I am hearing for the Church in Perth is to establish our city as a refuge for Chinese people. It is to accept Chinese folk unconditionally and not in relation to money, competency and power. It is to understand that the cohort behaviour (moving as a group) of Diaspora Chinese, their patriarchal forms of leadership, their consciousness of population size, their strong preferences for Chinese cuisine, their tendency to marry within their own race group, their difficulties in befriending other races, and so on, are an understandable survival response to centuries of social marginalisation and no better or worse than the cultural dynamics of other nation groups. The presence of the Chinese amongst us provides a special opportunity for Christ-centred living.
The sad curse laying over this country, from the European invasion with its prison colonies and cruelty to the original inhabitants, or the recent American invasion by media, means that Australians, both indigenous and other native-born, have never been treated as equals but as culturally inferior. (This equates indirectly to spiritually inferior.) If the Aboriginal and white Australian churches break from this pattern by fully embracing the Chinese God has sent to us, a new level of authority will come to this Southland of the Holy Spirit.
Streams of Grace
Last year as I awoke one morning I saw multi-coloured streams of people flowing out of this part of Western Australia. I sensed it was a sign of global outreach, and the different colours referred to different races. With this, I saw that the leadership of this missions move was in the hands of different people groups (Greek = ethnoi/nations) gathered in unity from around the globe. I felt aware of Aboriginal, Chinese and white leaders (at least) and approached several brothers about this at the time. (This was when Ed Silvoso spoke of Perth as an Antioch city.)
I am directing this message to the WMPC and United Prayer leadership because I believe it relates intimately to the purposes of both groups. The Lord is saying that before he can fully disciple the nations of the world (Matt 28:18-20) through the Church in Perth he must first disciple the people groups within the church in relation to one another. We are not yet close to this. In particular, we have not reached a unity in the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4) that is an essential pre- condition for us being a seasoning presence (as salt and light) within the coming global move of God. That is, if the Church in WA is to have a global impact on world missions it must first embody the unique redemptive gift Christ has endowed upon us – refuge and friendship for all peoples equally!
This is going to require a heightened sensitivity in the Spirit to the decision making styles of Aboriginal, white Australian and Chinese people. Unless we come together to intercede, especially in relation to United Prayer, this maturity cannot come. Our confidence, even at the sub-conscious level, where most decisions are made (Heb 4:12-13), must not be in culture but solely in Christ. As I see it, this is a humanly impossible demand, “but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26).